Mitsubishi WL7200U WXGA LCD Projector Review

November 10, 2012 - Art Feierman

Mitsubishi WL7200U Color & Picture Quality

To start, I connected my laptop to the WL7200U via HDMI and fed the projector its native resolution (1280 x 800). The WL7200U displayed a sharp image that is notable for its accurate, well-saturated colors in most modes. Colors were quite accurate in any color enhancer mode, with the exception of a slight greenish cast to whites in the brightest modes. Even so, colors appeared natural, without the normal darkness in reds or yellows. Dropping down into Theater mode improves the color over Presentation or Standard, while still putting out over 4000 lumens. As a practical issue, unless your presentation is dependent on very accurate color or maximum brightness is not a concern, the Auto (or Presentation or Standard) mode is your best bet for most presentation uses.

As a result of the good color, photo presentations are excellent with the WL7200U, particularly in Theater mode. As mentioned in the Setup and Menu section of this review, there are a number of adjustments available to improve the picture quality. If you need to increase the contrast of your presentation, the gamma control will allow you to keep blacks from looking gray and vice versa. Similarly, the red, green and blue grayscale adjustments will provide the proper basis for accurately displayed colors at any level of brightness. Not having any X-ray film to display, I was unable to check the effectiveness of the Clear and Blue Base modes, but it’s a feature that should have a lot of appeal in medical schools.

I also connected my laptop to the WL7200U via the analog VGA connection and there was no readily apparent reduction in color depth. There was the usual minor change in picture quality and depth of color one usually experiences going from a digital to analog connection.

There is a movable electronic zoom (designated magnify) that allows the user to zoom in on a particular section of the screen.

Mitsubishi WL7200U Readability

The WL7200U provided a sharp image at any resolution or aspect ratio. Displaying our usual spreadsheet with a range of text sizes and colors at its native resolution (1280 X800), there was no problem reading small (8 pt.) text on an 80” diagonal projected image. This level of readability was maintained with white text-on-black and yellow text-on-dark blue backgrounds as well.

Moving to higher resolutions and aspect ratios than the native resolution, the WL7200U proved to be a solid performer. As seems to be the norm these days, there is little difference with the higher resolutions. Switching to 1600 x 1200 and then 1920 x 1080, the WL7200U was still able to provide readable text of any size, with virtually no distortion. Unlike DLP projectors (which use a single panel with individual colors projected through a color wheel onto the panel) LCD projectors (which use separate panels for red, green and blue, and are usually pixel converged through a prism and the lens) can often be prone to color fringing around smaller lettering. This was not the case with the WL7200U, as small text remained quite readable and there was very little color separation or overlap. This also was the case when dropping down to XGA (1024 X 768) resolution, where the displayed text looked essentially the same as it did at the WL7200U’s native resolution.

Mitsubishi WL7200U Video Performance

For movie or video testing, I used the DVD playback from my laptop computer, still connected via HDMI. Starting in Theater mode, I viewed a few DVDs that I am quite familiar with from evaluating home theater projectors (Casino Royale is a favorite). As I expected from the Color and Picture Quality evaluation, these DVDs looked quite good on the WL7200U. Skin tones were quite natural and color depth was at the level we’ve come to expect from LCD projectors. The high lumen output made viewing darker scenes less enjoyable, even with the auto iris on. However, black levels were about average for a projector of this brightness. As the WL7200U is destined for a large venue, the tradeoff between black levels and brightness is appropriately weighted.

For viewing in an average lit room, the high brightness of the WL7200U even in Theater mode provides for a highly watchable image, making it a good choice for video presentations in a classroom or conference room. While it’s not all that likely to be used in the typical venue for this projector, the WL7200U’s built-in 10-watt speaker can be used in a pinch.